CHAP, v.] INFORMATION WITHHELD. 135 



I found their information to be of very little prac- 

 tical use. 



I had spent more hours than an untravelled European 

 would easily give me credit for, in questioning and 

 cross -questioning Damaras about the distances we 

 had to go over. Mr. Hahn and Mr. Eath severally, 

 at Barmen and Otjimbingue, had helped me to the 

 utmost of their ability, and yet, on starting, I could 

 not tell whether Omanbonde lay five days off or six 

 weeks. As a proof of the extreme difficulty of 

 worming out facts from the Damaras, I may mention 

 that Okandu Fountain, which lay only five miles from 

 Schmelen's Hope, and where we slept the fii'st day, 

 was unknown by the missionaries. At Schmelen's 

 Hope itseK there is only vley (pool) water and wells, 

 which a dry season might exhaust, and though 

 abounding in grass, trees, and garden land, the place 

 was reluctantly abandoned, and the head-quarters of 

 the Mission were estabhsJied at Barmen, which has 

 much fewer natural advantages. When Mr. Kolbe, 

 at a subsequent period, went to Schmelen's Hope, 

 he merely occuj)ied it as a branch station. Now, 

 constant inquiries have been made for years as to 

 whether there were any fountains near Schmelen's 

 Hope, but without success, and yet this one, lying in 

 full sight and right in the middle of the river-bed, 

 had never been spoken of to the Missionaries or 

 discovered by them. This is not at all an isolated 

 case of the difiiculty of getting the information you 

 want from the savages ; they are intensely stupid, and 

 lie for lying's sake. One man at Otjimbingue told me, 



